The Asus RT-BE58 Go is the second Wi-Fi 7 travel router that we’ve received for extended testing, coming hot on the heels of the TP-Link TL-WR3602BE, which is one of our picks among the best Wi-Fi routers. At first glance, you might even think the two routers are related, as they look pretty similar (one is black, the other white) and share a nearly identical feature set.
And more importantly, they both target the same market: consumers who need to share a Wi-Fi connection with multiple devices and/or people in a compact form factor. Asus can easily achieve this with a dual-band Wi-Fi 7 router that costs around $120 as of this writing.
Design of the Asus RT-BE58 Go Wi-Fi 7 Travel Router
The RT-BE58 Go has more than a passing resemblance to its closest competitor: the TP-Link WR3602BE. They share an identical footprint with a square base and a design that is basically a cube cut in half. They both also have two antennas that stow alongside the body, or extend upright like a pair of rabbit ears.
There’s also a programmable toggle switch on the device’s side. By default, it doesn’t control anything (e.g., turning Wi-Fi on/off, turning the front LED on/off, or activating the VPN). However, you can use the Asus Router app to switch between operating modes.
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The RT-BE58 Go has a single horizontal status LED on the front of the chassis and a programmable action button on the side (just like the WR3602BE). On the back, you’ll find a single 2.5 GbE WAN port, a GbE LAN port, and a USB 3.0 port (it can be used for networked storage or to support internet sharing via USB cellular modem or smartphone). There’s also a single USB-C port (with Power Delivery support) for powering the device. You can power the RT-BE58 Go using either the included USB-C wall adapter or via a USB-C portable battery pack.
Asus RT-BE58 Go Wi-Fi 7 Travel Router Specifications
|
MSRP |
Wi-Fi Standard |
# of Bands |
2.4 GHz Speeds |
5 GHz Speeds |
Coverage |
Ports |
|
|
$129.99 |
Wi-Fi 7 |
2 |
688 Mbps |
2882 Mbps |
1,800 sq ft |
1x 2.5 GbE WAN, 1x GbE LAN, 1x USB 3.0 |
|
|
$139.99 |
Wi-Fi 7 |
2 |
688 Mbps |
2882 Mbps |
1,800 sq ft |
1x 2.5 GbE WAN, 1x GbE LAN, 1x USB 3.0 |
Setting up the Asus RT-BE58 Go Wi-Fi 7 Travel Router
My preferred method for setting up the RT-BE58 Go is the Asus Router app, and it isn’t incredibly easy to navigate. You kick off the setup process by scanning the QR code at the bottom of the router, which lets the setup program automatically join the factory-assigned SSID with the default username and password.
Once connected, you can create a new username/password for the router and then rename the SSID if you choose. I renamed the SSID to Asus_Test and set the router’s password to my own unique one. Once all of that administration work is out of the way, you can log in to the router’s interface and further tweak settings to your liking and check to see if any firmware updates are available.
Given its similar positioning, the RT-BE58 Go has the same feature set as the TL-WR3602BE. That means, you can use the router in the following modes:
- Via Public Wi-Fi — allows you to connect to a hotel Wi-Fi, or any public hotspot, and create your own private and secure network for devices
- Via an Ethernet Cable — the traditional method of connecting to a cable modem or fiber connection
- Via USB Tethering — share your smartphone’s internet connection via the USB-A port on the router
- Via a USB Modem — connect the router to a USB cellular modem
For all of our iPerf3 testing, I used the Ethernet cable method. However, I also used Public Wi-Fi mode to share my iPhone’s cellular connection (via the phone’s personal hotspot) with the RT-BE58 Go.
Software and Features of the Asus RT-BE58 Go Wi-Fi 7 Travel Router
Asus’s Router app is used across its broad portfolio of network products, ranging from gaming routers to mesh routers to portable routers like the RT-BE58 Go. The main “Home” page displays an image of your router, the primary Wi-Fi SSID, and the LAN IP address. To the right of this information, you’ll see an icon that looks like a speedometer; it provides quick access to QoS settings that you can change on the fly.
The large circle presents various status updates that you can scroll through, including real-time traffic, network name, CPU and RAM usage, and the number of connected wired/wireless clients. Below the circle are buttons for internet status, AiMesh status (if enabled), and Wi-Fi information.
In the Devices menu (via the bottom navigation bar), you’ll find a list of connected wired/wireless devices (and any devices that previously connected but are now disconnected). You can also access the AiMesh settings from here. The next tab is Insight, where you’ll find yet another mention of AiMesh, a link to register your router, and quick highlights of your router’s threat assessment.
The family tab lets you set parental controls for your children on a per-device basis. Finally, the Settings tab gives you access to all of the advanced settings available to the RT-BE58 Go. You can configure the USB port, enable AI Protection (a built-in security suite), run diagnostics on the router, perform firmware updates, backup or restore router settings, enable Google Assistant integration, and more.
Asus RT-BE58 Go Wi-Fi 7 Travel Router Performance
Our client rig for wireless tests consists of an MSI Pro B650M-A Wi-Fi motherboard, AMD Ryzen 5 7600 processor, 32GB of DDR5 memory, a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, an MSI Herald-BE Wi-Fi 7 adapter, and Windows 11 Home. The system sits on a mobile cart that I can roll around the house. The server is a Windows 11 Home machine with a 10 GbE network card connected to the 2.5 GbE LAN on the RT-BE58 Go.
The iPerf3 wireless throughput tests are run at 6 feet and 25 feet, with and without network traffic. Tests are conducted separately on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. In the congested traffic tests, we add six wireless clients streaming 4K YouTube content across the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands.
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The RT-BE58 Go is focused primarily on portability, so it’s not nearly as powerful as desktop-based dual-band Wi-Fi 7 routers. Starting with our 5 GHz iPerf3 test at short range (6 feet), the RT-BE58 Go put up a good showing, hitting 865 Mbps compared to 753 Mbps for the TL-WR3602BE. Switching to our long-range test (25 feet), the Asus router dropped to 391 Mbps, compared to 300 Mbps for the TL-WR3602BE. Congested traffic at both ranges led to a 10 to 15 percent drop for the RT-BE58 Go. However, the Asus still consistently came out ahead of its TP-Link counterpart.
Things were more mixed on the 2.4 GHz band. With our short-range testing, the TL-WR3602BE came out ahead (97 Mbps versus 88 Mbps), but the RT-BE58 Go took a barely perceptible lead at long range (37 Mbps versus 36 Mbps). With congested traffic, the two routers were separated by 1 Mbps at short range and 3 Mbps at long range.
While I primarily used the RT-BE58 Go with a 2.5 GbE WAN port connected to my 2 Gbps fiber modem, I also tested it with my iPhone Air as a hotspot (via the USB-A port and Wi-Fi hotspot). I tested the router outside, connected to my Anker 737 USB-C Power Bank. In Wi-Fi hotspot mode, I achieved an Ookla SpeedTest result of 140 Mbps down and 40.25 Mbps up on an HP OmniBook Snapdragon X Elite laptop. For reference, my iPhone Air natively hit 924 Mbps down and 198 Mbps up using its cellular connection.
Bottom Line
The Asus RT-BE58 Go is a full-featured mobile router in a pint-sized package. It’s highly portable, can be powered with a USB-C power bank, and is configurable with a well-designed smartphone app. It allows you to provide internet to multiple devices via WAN, USB-A, or a Wi-Fi hotspot, and it offers various operating modes.
Performance-wise, the RT-BE58 Go outperforms the TP-Link TL-WR3602BE on the 5 GHz band and performs nearly identically on the 2.4 GHz band. Given the almost identical feature set and form factor between the two devices, choosing between them will largely come down to price. The TL-WR3602BE currently has a street price of $99, while the RT-BE58 Go goes for $119. Given the price differential, we’d probably still give the nod to the TP-Link, but you can’t go wrong with either choice.
